Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-14
BOETHIUS.
The Last Of His Series of Articles on
the Prohibition Question.

III the bOnOfaDteS OF tue Iafty III con-
troll of the Legislature now assembled
at the State capitol are really possessed
with a genuine and patriotic desire to
promote the general welfare of the
people of this commonwealth; if they
are endowed with that elevated sense of
duty to their fellow citizens that the
representatives of free people should
have; if they have laudable desire to
destroy current and widely prevalent
idea that they are controlled by the
liquor power of this state; if they have
any respect for the promises of their
party made in the last political cam
paign and by means of which they Sc
cured their election; if they wish to do
that which will secure to their party
the continued respect and confidence of
the people; if they wish to do some
thing that will tend to reduce the pro-
portion of ignorance and illiteracy in
the near future to the smallest possible
minimum; if they wish to do what they
can toward removing the cause of most
of the brutality which now exists in uu-
happy households; if they wish to solve
the convict labor problem by gradually
reducing the number of convicts or, in
other words, by giving the people a
better chance to remove that which.
more than everything else, begets crime;
if they would like to have the present
capacity of the insane asylums of the
state be sufficient to accommodate the
needs of an ever-increasing population;
if they would like to solve the vexatious
labor problem without any special labor
legislation that, at most, could serve
only temporary purposes; and, above
all, If they desire to avoid triangular
contests at the next and succeeding cleo
tions in which the divided party of
moral progress and reform constitutes
the base and perpendicular at right
angles to each other, but both opposed
to the liquor power hypothenuse and
plurality; if they desire any or all of
these things, then these representa-
tive Honorables, in the language of the
Republican platform, recognizing the
evils of intemperance" wH "adopt the
most effective means for its suppress
SION -
Whatever differences of opinion there
may exist in the minds of these legis-
lators as to what constitutes the ''most
effective MEANS" the agitation of the
question during the last few years,
among other things, has shown con-
clusively that the most effective means"
of suppressipg intemperance certainly
does not consist in doing nothing at all.
There is much reason to believe that
while the present laws upon the subject
may be somewhat effective, it is plainly
apparent that they are also somewhat
defective and no doubt can be improved
upon. While the present local option
law may be good, the prejudices of
many people aside from the fierce OPP
position of the third party prohibition
lists has to q considerable degree des-
troyed its usefulness and relegated it to
a state of s'inocuous desuetude.' The
vote at the late election plainly showed
chat while the people wanted some
temperance legislation they were not
ready for state prohibition. Taking
these things into consideration, it is be-
lieved that county option law, as a
compromise and as paclficator for the
warning temperance elements, would
furnish the ''most effective means, in
the present state of public opinion, for
the suppression of intemperance. Con-
siderations of political principles are
often disregarded in the choice of county
officers, and may be entirely overlooked
with profit to county government. So
doing will give the people of the various
counties an opportunity to take sides on
the Prohibition question without COM
promising their principles as members
of the two great political parties which
are likely to exist as long as the nation
itself. BoETHIUs.
February 5, 1887
Record: John Bonham and James
Sprague are prospecting for mineral on
fands of the former, near Beetown.
4 =. 4 e